“They Got the Grant!”: Digitizing the Oregon Story
The U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society is thrilled to learn that the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) was recently awarded a grant for an ambitious oral history digitization project. The grant request, “Digitizing the Oregon Story: Creating Access to Significant Legal and Political Oral Histories,” received $77,431. This Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) 2019 Grant is funded through the State Library of Oregon’s Library Support and Development Services. Because OHS serves as the repository for the legal and judicial oral histories conducted by USDCHS, our organization wrote a letter of ringing endorsement for the grant. The project will make available interviews originally recorded in obsolescent formats, including open…
Wild Wild History: Key Players in the Rajneeshpuram Episode Come Together for Famous Cases Discussion
By Douglas Pahl In 1981, the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, his personal assistant Ma Anand Sheela, and their community of followers purchased the Big Muddy Ranch near the tiny Oregon town of Antelope. The ambitious experiment soon ignited great concern among the citizens of Antelope as well as among state and federal officials. The resulting legal and cultural controversies – many of them caused or exacerbated by supporters of the Bhagwan – played out in state and national media and in state and federal courtrooms. Events spiraled from challenging to bizarre to quite dark, and the initially challenging issues of constitutional, voting rights, and land use law issues gave…
A Founding Friend: Clerk of the Court Robert M. Christ 1927 – 2019
By Adair Law Robert M. Christ (rhymes with wrist), a lawyer, court administrator and lifelong Portland resident, died in his sleep May 31, 2019. He was at the founding of the U.S. District Court Historical Society in the summer of 1984 and became its first executive secretary. He served as Clerk of the Court 1971-90 and worked with four chief judges: Judges Robert Belloni, Otto Skopil, James Burns, and Owen Panner. Bob’s father Mladden Christ (1895-1965) emigrated from Macedonia in 1910 and the people of Bob’s mother Anna Zehiko (1900-85) came from the Ukraine via Edmonton, Canada to the United States. Mladden met Anna at a dance at St. Stanislaus…
Memories of Judge Owen Panner: “A lawyer who made the rest of us proud to be lawyers”
Amy Kent Law clerk to Judge Panner 1990-1992, 1994-1999 “As a brand new law clerk for Judge Panner, I was quite nervous submitting my first draft opinion resolving a motion. I was relieved when returning it to me, he said, “Amy, this is just fine.” However, he then added, “I want you to change only one word: grant to deny!” This epitomized the Owen Murphy Panner approach I observed in the seven years I clerked for him: direct, to the point, and no BS. And then I rewrote the entire draft!” ***** Arlene Schnitzer Founding board member and original chair of the Oral History Committee “I very much enjoyed working…
Judge Owen Panner and the Warm Springs Tribe
by Dennis C. Karnopp Dennis C. Karnopp is a retired partner in the Karnopp Petersen law firm, which is the successor to the firm founded by Owen Panner in 1950. From 1967 until his retirement in 2017, Mr. Karnopp worked with and succeeded Judge Panner as Warm Springs Tribal Attorney The late Judge Owen Panner’s career in private practice is best known for his long and successful representation of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. His relationship with the Tribe began shortly after he moved to Bend from Oklahoma in 1949. Before Owen could take the Oregon bar and practice law, he was a car salesman,…